Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque has called on his players to carry on their good form and win Sunday's World Cup final.
After losing 1-0 to Switzerland in their first group game in South Africa, Spain went on to qualify for the last 16 by beating Honduras and Chile.
Since then they have edged past Portugal and Paraguay by a single goal before reaching the final with a 1-0 victory against Germany on Wednesday thanks to Carles Puyel's header.
Del Bosque is looking forward to Sunday's final against the Netherlands, saying:"All of our players were extraordinary – but we still have a match to play. We know Dutch football and it will be very tough in the final.
"From defence through to attack I think we played a great game.
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"We've got another game in front of us, let's see if we are able to control the ball. We're in good shape physically, so let's see if we can win."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
The FA have charged Liverpool striker Luis Suarez after investigating claims that he racially abused Manchester United defender Patrice Evra in the 1-1 draw between the sides at Anfield back in October.
The Uruguay international has pleaded his innocence since the French full backk made the claims over a month ago, and the English governing body have been reviewing the evidence.
The FA have revealed that Suarez has a case to answer, with a disciplinary sanction set to be handed down.
“The FA has today charged Liverpool’s Luis Suarez following an incident that occurred during the Liverpool versus Manchester United fixture at Anfield on 15 October 2011,” an official statement reads.
“It is alleged that Suarez used abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards Manchester United’s Patrice Evra contrary to FA rules.
“It is further alleged that this included a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Patrice Evra.
“The FA will issue no further comment at this time,” it states.
Liverpool have been quick to issue a statement of acknowledgment on behalf of the South American, who is currently returning from international duty.
“The club this afternoon received notification from the Football Association of their decision to charge Luis Suarez and will take time to properly review the documentation which has been sent to us,” reads a statement from Anfield.
“We will discuss the matter fully with him when he returns from international duty, but he will plead not guilty to the charge and we expect him to request a personal hearing.
“Luis remains determined to clear his name of the allegation made against him by Patrice Evra. The club remain fully supportive of Luis in this matter,” it concludes.
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Suarez’s incident was the first claim of racism in a month where a number of other cases in Premier League football have arose.
Real Madrid cut Barcelona’s lead in La Liga to four points with a 2-0 win over Hercules, while Valencia were stunned by Real Zaragoza.A brace to France international Karim Benzema ensured Real kept pace with the league leaders, who will look to restore their seven-point lead when they visit Sevilla on Sunday.Benzema’s brace was the perfect warm-up for an impending visit from former club Lyon, who carry a 1-1 aggregate into the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday.Real, playing without injured superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, went ahead in the 24th minute when Alvaro Arbeloa pulled back his pass on the right for the waiting Benzema, who coolly disposed of the ball beyond Hercules goalkeeper Calatayud.The hosts had plenty of opportunities to extend their advantage before Benzema finally did so in the 56th minute, the Frenchman picked out by Angel Di Maria’s cross for his ninth goal of the season.Elsewhere, Valencia’s hopes of a top-three finish took a dent when they were humbled 4-0 at Real Zaragoza.Czech midfielder Jiri Jarosik put the hosts ahead in just the fifth minute, and Ander’s first goal since September put Zaragoza 2-0 up in the 40th minute.Things only got worse for Valencia after the break, beginning with a second caution to Lithuanian defender Marius Stankevicius in the 65th minute.Gabi converted from the penalty spot following that infraction, and the Spaniard added a second penalty 11 minutes later after Valencia substitute Albelda fouled in the area.Valencia are safe in third for the time being, but fourth-placed Villarreal can move within a point of them with victory over Sporting Gijon on Sunday.Finally, Atletico Madrid were held to a 2-2 draw at lowly Almeria, despite a brace to prolific Argentinean Sergio Castillo.Crusat and Henok Goitom nabbed goals for Almeria to deny Atletico, who provisionally move up to eighth with the point.
Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer has wasted little time in beginning the war of words with a "stupid" England ahead of their World Cup last 16 clash.
Beckenbauer, who was rebuked last week after claiming England had 'returned to the bad old days of kick and rush' under head coach Fabio Capello, has again made headlines with his outspoken comments.
He has labelled England "stupid" for failing to win Group C and therefore setting up a last 16 clash with their old foes in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
The Three Lions booked their place in the knockout round with a 1-0 victory over Slovenia on Wednesday, but the narrow margin of victory allowed the United States to nip in and win the group.
"A game like this should be a semi-final, not a last 16 game," he told Bild
"Stupidly, the English have slipped up a little by finishing second in their group."
Meanwhile, Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as a player and manager with West Germany, has questioned the fitness of the England players following a long Premier League season.
He continued:"The English look a little tired. There is a good reason for that: the Premier League players have got to play far more games than their Bundesliga colleagues, including two national cup competitions.
"Therefore, when it comes to a World Cup or a European Championships, they are burnt out.
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"Our players, on the other hand, seem to be in a physically better condition.
"Of course we respect them, but we certainly don't fear them.
"England's first two appearances at the World Cup were paltry, but they improved against Slovenia."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Sky Sports commented recently on Newcastle United’s occupation of 4th place in the Premier League and belittled the unbeaten North East side along with the majority of the top-flight, by suggesting the Magpies had not really played anybody yet. Nice to know, what Sky Sports thinks of Tottenham and Arsenal, who both have travelled to St James’ Park this season and returned to the capital, with just a point apiece.
Now if I work on the same premise as Sky, then surely it is Chelsea, who have flattered to deceive this term. The Blues only having played the one somebody in their eyes in Manchester United. A game the Stamford Bridge outfit lost! Level on points with Newcastle, Chelsea have had wins against newly-promoted Swansea and Norwich along with West Brom, Sunderland, Bolton and Everton. Drawn against Stoke and lost to Queens Park Rangers in last Sunday’s ill-disciplined affair. A performance, which sees Andre Villas-Boas’ team stranded at the bottom of the Fair-Play League or as I prefer to see it, firm favourites for the Foul-Play League.
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It is no secret, that integral parts of the Chelsea team are starting to get on a bit. Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba probably being the two most noticeable in terms of age. However, Frank is the Blues’ top scorer in the league and Drogba gets my vote over Fernando Torres on any day that ends in Y. Summer signing Juan Mata looks a quality player and Ramires has been outstanding this season. Daniel Sturridge is showing real promise, while January arrival David Luiz is a central defender I really like the look of.
Chelsea have not become a bad team, but I can’t help thinking, that based on Sky’s definition of a nobody team, AVB’s boys have much sterner tests to come. Starting with their next fixture against a confident and rejuvenated Arsenal this weekend, who they will face without their tormenter-in-chief against the Gunners, Drogba. Jose Boswinga, will miss the Arsenal clash also, while Ashley Cole is already just a booking away from suspension and could quite probably miss the game with Liverpool should he see yellow in the near future.
A defeat to Arsenal and any sort of slip up against Kenny Daglish’s men could see Chelsea falling right off the pace at the summit of the Premier League. So what I would say to Sky is just perhaps reserve your judgement on Newcastle and we might all have a better idea of who are the pretenders and impostors come December 3rd, when Chelsea travel North to have a go at Alan Pardew’s side. On a final note, it’s strange how Sky, who have almost complete saturation of a league they describe as the best in the world, can dismiss the majority of it as rubbish. The fans pay your wages you imbeciles!!!!
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Rangers boss Walter Smith will field a strong side in their Europa League clash with Sporting Lisbon despite Sunday’s crunch match with Celtic.
Rangers trail their arch-rivals by five points on the Scottish Premier League table with two games in hand going into the trip to Celtic Park, but have the hosting of Sporting Lisbon on Thursday in the first leg of their round of 32 Europa League tie to get through first.
Smith hardly has the luxury of depth in his squad, but the former Scotland manager will not holding back for the meeting with the Portuguese heavyweights.
“It’s dead simple. Everyone keeps asking me this – you’ve got to win your games,” Smith said.
“If we put out a far weakened team or a reserve team, they lose the game and we put out a stronger team and they lose on Sunday, then you have lost two games.”
“You’ve got to try and win your games. It’s a silly circumstance for everybody to say you are involved in professional football and you don’t want to win a game. You’ve got to try and win the matches you are involved in.”
Sporting, like Rangers, have had financial issues inhibit their spending in the transfer market.
The similarities do not end there, with both clubs losing their top scorers in the January transfer window: Rangers sold Kenny Miller to Turkish side Bursaspor, while Sporting frontman Liedson was offloaded to Corinthians.
“If I look at the circumstances at the present moment, they are a little bit similar to ourselves in the sense that they look as though – from the outside – they have financial problems within their club,” Smith said.
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“They lost a couple of players in the (European) summer (and) like ourselves they lost their top goal-scorer … in the (January) transfer window.”
“So they have one or two problems getting a settled team at the present moment. If you look at all the problems we’ve had to endure over the last few years, both clubs are really in a very similar circumstance.”
1.Argentina have an embarassment of riches up front
Whilst Gonzalo Higuain may have grabbed the headlines (and the hastily awarded itv.com man of the match award), the impressive displays of his fellow attacking team-mates suggest that Argentina may have the best strikeforce at the World Cup. The way that Higuain managed to work in fluid synchronicity with the mesmeric Messi, industrious Tevez and tricky di Maria in a revolving quartet of creativity was a thing of pure beauty. Aside from the aforementioned foursome, Sergio Aguero managed to cap off an impressive 15-minute cameo with an assist, whilst treble-winning 30-goal hitman Diego Milito failed to even make it off the bench.
2.Players appear to be getting even stupider
A colleague of mine initially made this point on Tuesday in light of earlier World Cup events, but the petulant behaviour of Nigeria’s Sani Kaita must rank as the most idiotic act of stupidity that this tournament has seen so far. With his side 1-0 up against an anaemic Greece after 33 minutes, Kaita foolishly kicked out at Greece’s Vasilis Torisidis, in a move that ultimately cost his side three valuable points.
3.Individual mistakes can be decisive
Due to the short nature of international tournaments, the damaging effect of mistakes can be far crueller than those committed in domestic leagues. Yesterday we saw three players’ unfortunate gaffes directly lead to goals. Argentina’s ponytailed centre-back Martin Demichelis’ defensive error allowed Lee Chung-Yong to nip in and score an unlikely goal for South Korea. Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama, whose performances up until the 71st minute of yesterday’s game had made him an early contender for player of the tournament, failed to control a tame shot and provided Vasilis Torosidis with the opportunity to net the winning goal for Greece. France centre-back Eric Abidal’s failure to stay in line with the rest of his defence allowed Mexico forward Javier Hernandez to beat the offside trap and coolly slot the ball past Hugo Lloris.
4.Sacre bleu!
France are bad. Really bad. Although yesterday’s limp display was an ever so slight improvement upon their showing against Uruguay, it is clear that there are deep problems existing within the French camp. On the brink of an ignominious first-round elimination, France deservedly lost to a well-drilled Mexico side. Raymond Domenech’s side looked disjointed and unimaginative, failing to create any clear chances and displaying a woeful lack of fluency. Although the players must share the blame, questions must be asked of the much-maligned outgoing manager, who has woefully mismanaged an undeniably talented group of footballers.
5.The boot-iful game
For some of the world’s biggest companies, the World Cup is an unbelievable platform for product placement. Whilst watching the three games yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice the ridiculous number of players wearing the same orange and silver Nike boots (apparently the boot in question is known as the “Mercurial Vapor Superfly II”). Having been alerted to their prevalence during Argentina v South Korea, I decided to tally up the number of players wearing them in the day’s subsequent games; Greece v Nigeria & France v Mexico featured no less than twenty (yes, TWENTY) players sporting said boots. According to Nike statistics, 40% of all players at this summer’s World Cup are wearing them.
Given that Carlos Tevez and Georgios Samaras were spotted wearing them, it seems as though they’re suited to both excellent and completely rubbish footballers alike.
Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/zarifrasul
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Click image below to see a gallery of the Brazilian babes at the World Cup
According to reports in The Mirror, Tottenham Hotspur are ready to offload a number of their fringe players, including midfielder Victor Wanyama, who is rated at £27m by Transfermarkt, this summer in order to fund a £100m-plus move for Lazio duo Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Ciro Immobile, and Liverpool must make sure they are watching developments closely.
What’s the word, then?
Well, The Mirror says that Mauricio Pochettino is ready to cash in on Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose, Moussa Sissoko, Mousa Dembele and Wanyama this summer, with four of those five players struggling to be regulars in the starting XI in recent months.
The Kenya international has often found himself on the substitutes’ bench with Dembele and Eric Dier preferred in the middle of the park, but it appears that even though the Belgium international could go, they won’t look to keep Wanyama if they receive a respectable offer for his services.
Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp may well be looking to fine tune his Reds team this summer to ensure they can challenge Manchester City and the like for the Premier League title next term.
How has Wanyama done this season?
Despite being a regular in the 2016/17 campaign as Spurs finished in second position in the top flight, the 26-year-old has found first-team minutes hard to come by this around.
While he began the season in the starting XI, he suffered an injury in August that kept him out of action until 2018, with Dembele and Dier forming a strong partnership in the middle of the park in his absence.
Still, the Kenya international has certainly had his impressive moments, including scoring a stunning goal in his side’s 2-2 draw at Anfield earlier this year.
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Should Liverpool sign him?
They certainly should do, and he could be the final piece of their team jigsaw.
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Having strengthened in central defence with the addition of Virgil van Dijk during the January transfer window, one of the positions left that the Merseyside outfit need to strengthen in is the defensive midfield role, and a player that can sit in front of the back and protect them when is needed.
Captain Jordan Henderson is doing that duty right now and while he is impressing Reds fans on Twitter with his displays, but you can’t help but feel that Wanyama would be more suited to the role.
The impressive defensive records of both Southampton and Tottenham when he has been playing regularly in recent years prove how influential he can be at the back.
The Hammers are in striking disarray again and desperately need one, if not two, new strikers before the transfer window closes.
They are down to the bare bones with just Modibo Maiga and Diafra Sakho as the main striking options, with Mauro Zarate more of a number 10 than a central focal point for the attack.
The ‘significant’ knee and ankle injuries Enner Valencia sustained against Astra Giurgiu last Thursday look as though they will rule the Ecuadorian forward out until October, which has further emphasised the Hammers’ need for a new front man.
Slaven Bilic need strikers, so here are five possible targets the East Londoners should be considering…
Raul Jimenez
It has been suggested by the Telegraph that West Ham are eyeing up a loan move, with a view to a permanent deal, for Mexican forward Raul Jimenez, depending on a work permit hearing later this week.
The striker had an unsuccessful season at Atletico Madrid last year, scoring just one goal in 27 games, but the former América striker had a good record in Mexico, scoring regularly, and he has scored eight times for Mexico already.
Charlie Austin
The Hammers have been linked with the QPR forward all summer and a move across London could well be on the cards for Austin as rumours suggest the striker would prefer to stay in London, rather than move to Newcastle – the other strongly linked club.
We all know how successful Austin was for the R’s last season, scoring eighteen times for the relegated Londoners showing he already has Premier League pedigree.
However, the rumoured £15m price tag on the forward is a stumbling block as the Hammers don’t rate Austin as highly as that fee, so the Hoops will have to drop the price if a deal is to be done.
Javier Hernandez
The Hammers are rumoured to be ready to make a move for the Man Utd forward, who is out of favour at Old Trafford after he was loaned out last season to Real Madrid.
There is strong interest in the Mexican forward from London rivals Spurs, so the East Londoners are going to have to move fast to secure the striker’s services.
Hernandez would be an ideal signing as he would add some real finishing know-how to the West Ham attack, and for £9m a deal for the striker is certainly a possibility.
Dimitar Berbatov
Football – Arsenal v AS Monaco – UEFA Champions League Second Round First Leg – Emirates Stadium, London, England – 25/2/15Dimitar Berbatov celebrates after scoring the second goal for MonacoAction Images via Reuters / John SibleyLivepicEDITORIAL USE ONLY.
A bit of a left field target for the Hammers, but the Bulgarian striker is still a classy performer, even at the ripe old age of 34.
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He could certainly still do a job in the Premier League but, even though the former Spurs man is still a talented performer, he couldn’t be considered as the one single striker to solve West Ham’s striking dilemmas.
However, with the Bulgarian out of contract after finishing his time at Monaco, he is attainable and could well be signed as a decent back-up option for the Hammers.
Loic Remy
The Chelsea forward has looked like he is set to stay at Stamford Bridge this season, but a move for the Frenchman could still be on the cards for the Upton Park based club, especially after the striker’s uninspiring performance in the Community Shield on Sunday, which may persuade Jose Mourinho to move the striker on.
Chelsea will need to sign another forward before they will be letting Remy leave however, but if they do the Hammers could resurrect a deal for the striker.
Arsenal are looking to sign England defender Micah Richards, according to the Mirror.
The Manchester City right-back has been linked with a move out of the club, despite having two years left on his contract.
But Richards, who only played 7 Premier League matches last season, is considering handing in a transfer request, after learning that Roma and Inter Milan are interested in his services. The right-back’s chances of getting into the first team are limited by the fact he is fighting for a place with club captain Pablo Zabaleta.
Arsenal are monitoring Richard’s situation, and could line him up as a replacement for Bacary Sagna. The Frenchman has been heavily linked with a move to France, with Monaco and PSG reportedly interested.
The 25-year-old is valued at £12million by Inter Milan, but he could be offered a chance to stay in the Premier League by Arsene Wenger.
Richards could be just one of many big names moving to the Emirates this summer, after Wenger was given a £70million transfer kitty to spend this summer. The right-back would fit Arsenal’s style of attacking fullbacks.
City are keen to offer Richards a new contract, but the 25-year-old is believed to be considering his options first.
Would Richards do well at Arsenal? Should he leave City?
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